


Literature Club of the Dead (Monika version)

by CplCorgi



Series: Literature Club of the Dead [1]
Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Nakamaship, Other, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2019-10-17 19:06:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17566256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CplCorgi/pseuds/CplCorgi
Summary: It's the day after the festival, and it seems all is well for the members of the Literature Club. That is, until the Zombie Apocalypse begins.The Literature Club has an idea of where they can go to be safe. The only trouble is that there's dozens of miles and thousands of zombies between them and there. But hey! It's just like a road trip with friends, right? Traveling countless miles, going on adventures in zombie-infested buildings together, sleeping with one eye open, wondering if you'll live to see dawn...There's four versions of this fic. The difference being which Doki MC wound up together with. I might have to abandon this feature if it turns out to be too labor intensive, though. I've also formatted the text in a way that's reminiscent of the way a visual novel would be formatted, so that's why everything seems to get its own line.





	1. Flashpoint

It’s the day after the festival.

I’m still a little worn out from the adrenaline rush of having actually sang at a karaoke event at the school festival, in front of Monika no less, but the thought of coming back to the Literature Club and seeing everyone again is enough to keep me going.

I pull myself out of bed, take a quick shower, shovel a granola bar down my throat and head out my front door. Already, I can see Sayori waiting for me.

“Good morning, MC~” Sayori says, smiling that innocent smile of hers as if she didn’t just call me ‘MC’.

“Oh come on, Sayori!” I say, beginning to walk towards the school. “I write just one less-than-stellar rap as my poem, and now even you won’t stop calling me MC!”

Despite my protests, Sayori just giggles. I swear, she’s enjoying this little joke just as much as the others. But when she speaks again, she says something I wasn’t ready for.

“Ehehe~ The other girls might be making fun of you, but do you know why I call you ‘MC’?” she asks.

“Because you’re in on the joke?” I say.

Sayori pouts. “Oh come on MC! Give me more credit than that!” And then she was right back to smiling. “I call you ‘MC’ because I’m sure that you could be an awesome rapper someday, if you just put your mind to it!”

“Heh… Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Sayori.” I say. Of course, I’m not all that passionate about becoming a rapper, but I’m not about to shut Sayori down when she’s trying to be supportive.

We keep on walking, only making a little more small talk on the way before we reach the front gates of the school and part ways.

The school day passes, but through the doldrum and monotony, I can tell that something isn’t quite right. When I got to the lunchroom, the guy I usually wind up sitting next to… Daichi was his name, I think. He wasn’t acting like himself at all. Usually, he would talk up a storm with anyone else nearby and treat us to his endless reserve of puns. I don’t really know the guy, but he usually made me smile at least once a day.

But today? He barely responded to anything. All he did was groan a few times, clutch his head and glare at anyone who engaged him for too long. He wolfed down his lunch like a madman, though. As if he’d gone hungry so long that he’d forgotten what chewing felt like. Daichi isn’t the only one acting strange either. A solid half of the student body is worryingly unresponsive. I really hope none of the Literature Club has the bug.

The day carries on, even more dead than usual. History class comes, and I tune out right when the teacher starts to discuss the formation of the United Prefectures of Japamerica. Yes, yes. FDR and Hirohito had a political marriage and our great nation was formed. Just don’t make me think about the honeymoon.

While I’m tuned out, I begin to think of the literature club, of Monika, of what’s going on in my animes right now, and then it occurs to me. I haven’t heard any kind of government advisory about the bug going around. Nobody’s confirmed if it’s the flu, mad cow disease, a collective panic attack, or anything. I haven't even heard if the government was investigating or not. I ask around, and even the students who are lucid enough to talk are as clueless as I am. It’s like this illness just materialized this morning.

Hell… maybe I have it. Can’t tell if I’m sick or just so bored by the banality of my classes that I’m falling asleep. After what felt like a week of monotony and worrying about catching the bug, it’s finally time to go to the literature club. Thank God.

I walk up in that club, and the usual scene greets me. Natsuki’s off in the corner with her manga, Yuri’s at her desk with her horror novel, and Monika and Sayori are up front with their conversations.

Having never gotten close with any of the literature club members, I simply take a seat next to the window to contemplate my own social ineptitude. A spoon full of moping makes the medicine go down, after all.

I manage to get about two minutes of self pity in before Monika of all people takes a seat right in front of me.

“So, MC. Are you going to treat us to your singing voice again?” She says, resting her chin against her steepled fingers. Something about the position feels oddly familiar, but I can’t place where I’ve seen it before.

“But... I... I... In front of everyone?” I say. Smooth, me. About as smooth as a rusty sheet of metal being rubbed against an old sidewalk…

Or corporate attempts at appealing to the youth.

“Ahaha! Juuuust kidding, MC.~” Monika playfully flicks my forehead as I sit there and stammer as if I’d forgotten how to form words with my lips. I look to Monika incredulously when she does this, only to be met by a less playful smile.

“Thanks for hanging out with me yesterday, MC. You know how Karaoke is. It’s easier to get up there when you know you have friends who support you in the crowd.” She says.

“Yeah…” I nod my agreement. If Monika hadn’t given me that nod before I went up, I might’ve had to just sit back down without singing anything. And honestly? That would have been even more embarrassing than the mediocre performance I wound up putting on.

Even if I only sang once, I’m glad I got to hear Monika sing. She may only be a beginner at piano, but it turns out Monika’s got pipes. She went up more than anyone else, but everyone just seemed eager to hear more of her singing voice.

First she nailed that Frank Sinatra song, then it was some song from a musical, and then she surprised everyone by belting out an Iron Maiden track of all things.

“Really, I should thank you for hanging out with me, Monika.” I say. ”You spared me from having to wander around alone… again…”

“Come on, MC. Do you really think that Sayori would have let that happen?” Monika says, tilting her head at me with a concerned smile.  
“I didn’t even see her last year.” I say.

“Oh… You just didn’t cross each other’s paths?” Monika says.

I nod. “Yeah. It’s a big festival, after all.”

“Aw, I’m sorry...” Monika says, her eyebrows drawing together. “Sayori wouldn’t have left you behind on purpose. I’m sure of it.”

“But…” She continues, returning to a smile. “At least you and I finally got to spend some time together.”

“Y-Yeah…” In all honesty, I’m just blown away that Monika even noticed me. Let alone looked forward to spending time with me. What could she possibly see in some dweeb who spends all his free time on anime and games? It certainly wasn’t my razor-sharp sense of humor.

“I was hoping that you’d be as witty one-on-one as you were back in history class last year, and you didn’t disappoint.~” Monika adds.

Oh. Maybe it was. Well then…

“So you like that side of me? I was always afraid I was coming off as an asshole.” I say.

“No you don’t!...” There’s a heavy pause as Monika seems to wrestle with something. “Ahaha, okay, maybe sometimes.”

I knew it. She’s just too nice to come out and say it, isn’t she?

Monika must have seen my face fall, because she quickly added to her remark. “I mean, to your credit you usually don’t come off as a jerk. It’s just that sometimes your jokes just cut a little too deep, or get a little too mean-spirited.”

“Like how I’ll tease Sayori sometimes?” I ask.

“Actually, not as much with Sayori, no.” Monika says, finally sitting upright in her chair. Right as I was finally getting used to our faces being so close together, too. It’s only after Monika stopped that I realized that I could have kissed her at any point up until now.

Wouldn’t that have been nice…

Then I noticed Monika looking at me with an amused grin. “Ahaha, earth to MC?”

“Oh! I- Well- Erm…” I sputter. “You… you didn’t say anything that I missed, did I?”

Monika’s grin only widens. “Depends. What was the last thing I said?”

She’s got me trapped like a rat. I think I know what the last thing I said was, but if I’m wrong…

“Ahahahahahaha!~ It’s alright MC, I’m just teasing.” Monika must’ve seen how I was squirming inside. I can’t help but think that that’s what she was after all along.

The two of us make a little more small talk, or a lot more, judging by how the other three started staring at Monika with expectant gazes. That was her cue.

“Okay, everyo-”

**[SLAM]**

Someone throws the door to the classroom open, and everyone stops dead in their tracks when they hear the noise.

We all see a male student standing in the doorway, his posture limp. His glazed over, grey eyes stare into nothing. It looks like he tried to rip his collar off, but forgot what buttons were and just clawed it off with his fingernails. For a few heavy seconds, he just stands there, muttering gibberish to himself.

Monika is the first to break the silence. “Ahaha… Can we help you?” she says, glancing over to us with a highly uncomfortable smile.

I just look right back. As club president, I figure Monika is the one with the best ability to make decisions for the group. Such as how to deal with someone barging in and gurgling at us.

I glance behind me as well, to the rest of the literature club. Sayori is looking around at everyone with an expression of concern on her face. Yuri’s staring straight at the intruder and looking like she’s halfway to having a panic attack. Natsuki, on the other hand, is glaring daggers at him.

Monika can’t exactly give them any kind of instruction or reassurance if she has to deal with this intruder, so I try and give her some breathing room.

“What the he-” Monika wouldn’t get so hostile off the bat, would she? I moderate myself.

“Do you have some kind of business with the Literature Club?” I say, in my best calm-yet-firm voice. Still no verbal response, but this guy is turning that dull gaze at me, rather than Monika now. Which seems to be just the diversion she needed.

“Are you okay?” I ask, as Monika begins to speak with the other club members. I can’t focus on what they’re saying, since I can feel my brain shifting into that fight-or-flight mode. I’m too busy looking the intruding student up and down for any sign that he’s going to attack.

Without breaking eye contact, I dip into my pocket and grab my phone. For a moment, I think of calling the police.

No, it isn’t quite that bad yet. Plus, there isn’t a number to call for the school’s resource officer. Looks like we’re on our own for now.

As I press him for some kind of response, the strange student seems more and more agitated. His quiet mumbling turns into a throaty moan of anger. Kind of like someone trying to gargle while doing a death metal growl.

Natsuki gets about halfway through asking “What the hell is your problem?” before the student lunges at me. Whatever’s wrong with him, I just know in the pit of my stomach that he’s got killing on the brain.


	2. Improvsation, Escalation

The dull-eyed student’s got me pressed against the teacher’s desk. He’s taking these wide, uncoordinated swings at my head. Still making those gut-churning, throaty noises that no human being in their right mind would make.

I punch him in the jaw. He doesn’t even notice. He punches the sides of my head. Each blow leaves me seeing stars. He’s ringing my head like a god damn bell and I can barely swing back. It’s just like my nightmares where nothing I do hurts the monster chasing me.

But I’m definitely awake. Each blow to my temples makes sure of that. If I don’t get him off me, I’m going to die. I need to do something, _anything at all_ to stop him.

I need to go for the eyes.

I get a hand free and cram one of my thumbs in his left eye socket. If I keep pressing he’ll get the hint, right? Nope. He just bit into the flesh of my wrist. It’s drawing blood.

“Monika, get clear!” Natsuki shouts. Through my screaming, I wonder what Natsuki’s about to do.

The folding chair that Natsuki’s bringing down on the guy’s head answers that question.

Chair and skull make contact with a crunching _[THWACK]_ that even I can feel the force behind. The student crumples to the floor, but despite taking a blow that would have knocked anyone cold and left many comatose, he just gets right back up.

I, however, remain on my knees. My vision is swimming from the blunt trauma and everything is pain.

I can’t really focus, but the student seems to be having even more trouble keeping his head up after the blow to the base of his skull, but he still manages to glare at Natsuki. And he’s not letting up with that throaty growl either.

This prompts Yuri to stand up and pull a grisly looking knife out of her bag. “You’ll stop this _at once_ , Shiro. Lest you give me reason to finally-”

“Shiro’s” eyes snap towards Yuri, and in an instant he’s upon her. They struggle for a moment, Shiro’s wild, maddened brute force against Yuri’s graceful, nimble dodges and precise placement of knife wounds. 

I’m still not sure if I can trust my eyes, but she practically dances around Shiro, knicking him with wounds that each bleed much more than you’d expect. Put them all together, and I begin to wonder how Shiro is still standing after all of that blood loss.

And what the hell is driving him to fight so furiously, for that matter.

By the time Yuri finally goes to cut Shiro’s throat, his blood has hit the classroom floor in amounts I fear might never be fully cleansed. Even still, Shiro throws punches for longer than he has any right to before finally collapsing.

The air hangs heavy for a moment, the four of us staring in slack-jawed disbelief as Yuri calmly wipes the blood from her knife and places it back in her bag. Almost as if she didn’t process what she’d just done.

Doing her best not to contemplate Shiro’s crumpled form, Sayori runs over to me and kneels at my side.

“MC!” Sayori hugs me tight. I can tell she’s about to cry.

“I’m gonna be fine, Sayori.” I say, resting the side of my head against her’s. I can’t really hug back, so that’ll have to do.

“You’re bleeding really bad. Here. Sit in the teacher’s chair and I’ll take care of you.” Sayori helps me to my feet, then puts the teacher’s swivel chair behind me so I can collapse into it.

While Sayori runs off to grab something to wrap my wound in, I watch Monika talk to the other two girls. I can’t really make out what any of them are saying, but I’m pretty sure Monika’s trying to calm them down after what just happened.

Natsuki looks totally fine, but I can see Yuri shaking from here. She’s got her arms pressed to her chest in that way she always does when something’s got her flustered.

I mean, I’d be wigging out too if I just got into a knife fight. Getting the crap beat out of you is one thing, but add a knife to the mix?

Disinfectant hitting my wrist pulls me out of that thought and back into the realm of pure pain.

I feel Sayori rub my shoulder. I don’t look back at her, but I give her a thumbs up with my free hand to let her know I appreciate it.

I see Yuri nod a few times, take a deep breath and sit down. Now Monika is approaching me and Sayori.

“Wow… you really took one for the team there, MC.” She says.

“Guess so…” I groan. I see Monika’s lips start moving again, but my ears start ringing hard enough that I can’t hear her. By the time it goes away she’s already finished speaking.

“Nngh… Sorry, what?” I ask.

“I said that your head’s really bruised up. You sure you don’t have a concussion?” Monika says, again.

“Given how loud my ears just rang? No. I’m not sure.” I say.

Sayori pulls me into a hug from behind. I can’t really hug back, so I just rest my head against hers again. “I’ll be fine d-...” Maybe I shouldn’t go calling my doctor a dummy. ”You’ve seen me tank worse.”

Yeah, I’ll pull through, but I’ll be damned if getting there won’t be agony.

“Hey, MC?” Monika says. “I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t have just left you to deal with that guy on your own.”

“You couldn’t have known what he’d do, Monika. It’s fine.” I say. By now, Sayori’s taking a long piece of bathroom paper towel and wrapping it around my wrist. She should be just about done, then.

“Still. I’m the club president. I should be looking out for my club member’s safety.” Monika says, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

“How could you have seen that coming, Monika?” I say, ignoring my swimming vision as I hop back to my feet. “I’m just glad he came after me, not you.”

“Ahaha…” Monika smiles this sweet smile as she pulls me into another hug.

“You really are something, MC.” She says. “Thank you for bringing him into the club, Sayori.”

Wow. Maybe I ought to get beaten up more often!

“I’ll be watching out for you guys more from now on, okay?” Monika says.

“Hey. Sorry to break up the tender little moment and everything.” Natsuki’s voice cuts right through all of us. “But can we talk about the fact that we just, y’know, killed somebody?”

“Ahaha… That is pretty serious…” Monika says, with a humorless chuckle. By now, my arm is bandaged, my ears aren’t ringing anymore and I’m sure I’ll be fine.

But you wouldn’t know that by looking at Sayori’s expression. You’d think I had seconds to live if you went by that.

“Guys?” Sayori begins, sounding almost like she was about to cry. “I think we might have a bigger problem than that.”

“What? MC’s fine, right?” Monika asks.

Sayori shakes her head. “MC’s okay. That’s not what I’m worried about.” She stops, looks at Shiro’s body, then at all of us. “This guy. Shiro… He had the bug that half the school had.”

You can see the realization dawning on everyone in the room just by looking at their faces. Monika’s horror at the idea is clear just from looking at her. Yuri’s face switches between relief and dread. Sayori just solemnly nods. Natsuki, however, almost looks like she takes offense to the notion.

“Hold on. You’re not trying to tell me that this little flu outbreak is the first day of the-”

Three more, looking just as feral as Shiro, slam themselves against the classroom door.

“Zombie… apocalypse.” Natsuki trails off as her attempt at denial crumbles before her.

For a moment I’m thankful that someone took the time to close the door after the whole Shiro debacle, but then I spot it. Oh, fuck me. One of the zombies is the _principal!_

And I got bit. Does that mean I’m going to turn?

“What do we do?” Natsuki asks, turning her gaze to Monika. The club president’s eyes lock on the window of the classroom door. I can see her trying to keep her composure well enough to make a decision.

“What do we _do!?_ ” Natsuki insists.

“Well we’re not staying here, that’s for god damn sure!” Monika snaps back. “Since you’re so damn eager for an answer, care to suggest _where?_ ”

Yuri, of all people, cuts into the rising argument. “We’ll head for my house.”

It’s a bit weird that _Yuri_ would be the one to break the stalemate, but maybe she just didn’t think anyone else would.

“It’s as good a plan as any” I say, shrugging.

“Okay everyone…” Monika says, seeming to remember that she’s supposed to be club president here. “Let’s get moving while that door’s still on it’s hinges…”

 _“Unarmed?”_ Natsuki asks, eyebrow raised.

Monika gestures to the folding chair that has a fresh dent in it.

“Well yeah, Yuri and I are armed, but what about everyone else?” Natsuki says.

At that, Yuri reaches back into her bag and hands me another knife. Possibly because I’m the closest to her at the moment.

Geez. How many of those does she carry?

After giving it a look over, I offer it to Sayori, but she shakes her head.

“I hate violence. You’ll have the heart to actually use it.” She says.

“I’m not leaving you defenseless, Sayori!” I protest.

“I’m not defenseless.” Sayori says, smiling that cancer-curing smile of hers. “I have you guys!~”

Natsuki opens her mouth to protest, but then the principal’s loose fist finally manages to shatter the glass on the door. I guess this is the best we can do.

“Ah dammit, get moving!” Monika shouts. “I’ll grab something to protect myself on the way!”

Monika throws the _other_ classroom door open and we all book it. I don’t think I’ve ever sprinted quite as hard as this in my life. 

On the way to the stairwell, we pass a few more of the infected, but I notice that not all of them are running after us. Some of them are shambling instead. Maybe we won’t have to worry about _all_ of them. I just hope the runners aren’t coordinated enough to follow us down the stairs.

Even I’m surprised by how quickly we manage to reach the stairwell. If I’d made it through the halls this quickly any other day, I’d never have to worry about being late for class again.

Before we can make it to the stairs, a mass of panicked students rushes past us. One of the running infectees and at least a dozen shamblers are hot on their tail. I see the runner faceplant and crumple violently down the stairs like a sack of dried bone, but then it gets right back up, hobbling on a visibly broken leg.

A second later another runner slams its entire body into me. I feel it’s teeth graze my neck before I shove it back with my elbow. It’s right back on me in a second, but at least now I’ve got my face to it. 

“Oh hell no. Not THIS time!” Monika rushes to my aid; thrusting the bottom of a fire extinguisher into my assailant’s head.

And again.

And _again_. This time with the infected’s head slamming into the stairwell wall.

A few more times for good measure.

When the infected and their visibly flattened head finally collapse to the floor, Monika is hunched over and panting. Her ragged, adrenaline-soaked breaths remind me of a mother bear who just finished mauling some stupid coyote that tried to eat one of her cubs.

“You okay, MC?” She says, turning her head to me.

“This time, yeah.” I nod.

Okay. Note to self. Do not fuck with Monika. I never guessed she would have that kind of wrath in her.

The crowd‘s cleared by now, and the five of us take the stairs three steps at a time. But even that isn’t fast enough to reach the infected that had some poor girl pinned to the wall. By the time Monika puts it in a chokehold, it’s already bitten a gash out of the other girl’s arm and puked in it. That puking thing looked pretty deliberate. At least I really hope it was deliberate. Maybe then I won’t turn.

I just barely manage to keep my own bile inside me. Needless to say, the rest of us grab the infectee and toss him down the stairs. I’m pretty sure all of us made a point of kicking him in the head as we made our way to the ground floor.

When we head down the ground floor halls and finally reach the front doors, we find that our biggest obstacle isn’t the infected, but our fellow students. Some absolute scumfuck has gotten it in his head to chain shut all but two of the doors.

“Two bucks and fifty yen per person!” He shouts. 

He’s got two pretty muscular looking cronies at each of his sides. The most shocking thing about this? People are _actually paying him!_ Some people rummage through their bags, others plead for the money needed for their passage. I think they call this the “Bystander effect”? “Mob Mentality”?

Whatever the name is, Natsuki is clearly having precisely none of that shit. She marches right up to this scumfuck huckster, the crowd parting around her like she’s a tiny, pissed off, pink haired Moses.

Without missing a beat, Natsuki raises her mighty folding chair and brings it right down on the guy’s skull, using the narrow part of it at that. The wet **[CRACK]** echoes through the entire room. Even scumfuck’s bodyguards are too shocked to do anything.

“Keep the change.” She spits at scumfuck’s bleeding, concussed form. 

Yuri must have spotted the danger that Natsuki had put herself into, because she ran to back her up. With a brandish of her knife’s business end, the two bodyguards immediately open the door to let Natsuki and Yuri through.

The rest of the crowd is quick to follow them. Some simply run for the hills, a few stop to thank or congratulate the two for ending that guy’s little get rich quick scheme. The rest of us are quick to rejoin them. The great throng of humanity is dispersed, we’re back together, but there’s still an entire school filled with… can I really call them “zombies”? Behind us.

“Alright, Yuri.” Monika says, catching her breath. “Lead the way.”

With a wordless nod, Yuri takes to the front of the group; her knife out and at the ready all the while. 

As we wade through the chaos that’s erupted in the streets, my gaze always returns to Monika.

I can tell she’s taking that pledge to keep us safe seriously. Sayori tries to get the infected’s collective attention for long enough that we can take them down, but Monika is actively trying to grab their attention _and_ take them out herself.

While the infected turn their attention to Monika or Sayori, the rest of us get plenty of chances to get behind them and finish the job. While very few of them actually manage to get their hands on Sayori, (I make damn sure of that), I can’t help but feel guilty for letting Monika take so many licks for me. For _us_.

I watch one of them headbutt Monika right in the mouth, but once she slams the fire extinguisher into them; knocking it clear off the car the two were standing on top of, she smiles and flashes us a thumbs up.

I don’t know if she noticed the blood streaming down the corner of her mouth.

By this point I’m pretty sure Monika’s taken twice as many blows as I did fighting Shiro. I can’t help but worry that Monika’s going to bite off more than she can chew, but she certainly meant it when she pledged to keep us safe.

By the time we reach Yuri’s house, the setting sun is almost covered by the smoke of burning buildings to the west. The usual walk home has been transformed into a gauntlet of ravening infected, terror-struck survivors doing _anything_ they can to survive, speeding road traffic that nearly took Monika’s head clean off, and the burning wrecks of vehicles that have already crashed; a few of them with freshly turned infected at the wheel.

As Yuri unlocks the front door of her home, the rest of us waste no time piling in and finding the first available seat to collapse on. Anything for a chance to catch our breath. When Yuri and I push a cabinet in front of the front door, _then_ I manage to relax.

“So Yuri, why did you suggest we come to _your_ house?” Sayori asks the question that was likely on everyone’s mind. The silence on Yuri’s end is deafening, or was it how loudly Yuri was blushing?

I’m just as clueless as everyone else. If she has something that would be useful or there was something about this house that would make survival easier, then why is she blushing? We’re going upstairs, where bedrooms tend to be. Is she planning what I think she’s planning?

As we ascend the stairs, a joke about taking all of us at once comes to mind, but I bite my tongue. A few steps down the hallway later, the lot of us are beginning to crowd Yuri’s rather tidy room. The only thing neater than Yuri’s impeccably made bed, or the pristine surface of her writing desk, has to be the glass cases in which Yuri keeps a dazzling array of knives.

Needless to say, we’re all taken aback by the knife cases.

“Geez, what do you need all of these for?” Natsuki says.

Sayori just stares at one of the cases with dumbstruck anxiety.

“Ahaha… I always wondered where you kept all of these things, Yuri.” Monika says, doing her best to mask her discomfort. Did Monika know about this? How?

I, for one, look over the display cases with a casual interest. It’s not much, but seeing that I’m not freaked out seems to be a massive source of comfort to Yuri. At least _someone_ isn’t judging her.

Yuri turns her back to us and approaches a Nightwish poster on her wall. I watch her poke it in what looks like a deliberate, complex sequence, and the section of wall that it’s on sinks in and slides to the right. When I get an eyeful of what’s on the other side, I learn that “a knife collection” was the wrong term for what Yuri has.

Try “a fucking arsenal”.

Besides some bigger bladed instruments, Yuri’s also got… I think that one rapper said “Like seven MAC 11s, about eight .38s nine 9s, ten MAC 10s, the shits never end!” Of course, I don’t know what any of those are besides “guns”, but the shits really don’t ever end in this room.

Seriously. She could arm the entire city block with this collection!

Before I can reclaim my jaw from the floor, Yuri speaks.

“I believe this answers your question, Sayori?” she says, her eyes welded to the floor.

“Yeah…” Is all Sayori manages, visibly uncomfortable in the presence of so much weaponry.

“It raises a lot more, though…” Monika says. Once again, Yuri cuts in.

“My parents don’t worry about my hobbies so long as I keep my grades up, yes, this is where most of my disposable income goes, it’s not a matter of need as much as desire, and yes. Everything here was obtained legally.” 

Yuri’s justifications come out with such clarity, such speed, that I get the impression that she’s been defending herself in her head for years now.

“Well, no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth.” I say.

Since everyone else seems to be getting more comfortable with the idea of this all, I can see Yuri finally look up from the floor, and even smile. “You’re all welcome to anything here, and to ask me any questions you may have.”

“I dunno... “ Natsuki says “I’m getting kind of attached to this folding chair h- oh _hello_ beautiful!”

Natsuki drops the folding chair the moment she sees a rather hefty looking greatsword. I think I recognize the manga that’s from, and I guess Natsuki does too.

Now, what should _I_ arm up with?

That’s a good question. With the sheer volume of choice in front of me, I don’t even know where to begin!

Maybe if I knew anything about guns, I’d be able to narrow down my choices. But I don’t. So maybe I should wait and see what everyone else chooses.

 _Somebody’s_ bound to have an idea of what they want. Might as well start bay asking the one person I’ve been talking to most today.

“So, Monika.” I say, looking out over the pegboards and tables full of every weapon I can think of. “Any idea what you want to take?”

“Ahaha… not a clue, MC.” Monika says.

“You never did seem like kind of person to like weapons.” I say. She always came off as the kind of person who would be an avowed pacifist. I don’t have any evidence for that, but she gave me the vibe.

“Monika?...” Yuri taps Monika’s shoulder and waits at her side. Almost looking like she was nervously waiting to ask her to the prom or something.

“Hm? What’s up, Yuri?” Monika says.

“I have a suggestion for what you should take.” Yuri gestures with her head for us to follow.

When we get where she was leading us, Yuri pulls a rather old looking rifle down from the pegboards and hands it to Monika.

“As our club president, and since you’ve so firmly resolved to keep us safe, it’s only fair I give you the best I have to offer.” Yuri says. “Of course that’s!- That is… i-if you want this…”

“Well, if you think it’s the best thing here, I’ll just have to believe you, Yuri. Thank you!” Monika’s smile seems to put Yuri at ease.

“If it matters to you, that’s an M1 Garand. A pre-marriage one at that. This rifle saw the war. It… It knew a world where nobody had to think about Hirohito and FDR’s honeymoon, even!”

I wince as Yuri reminds me that the honeymoon happened in the first place. At least she didn’t go into detail…

“Oh yeah! It says 1943 right on the… the thing here.” Monika says, tactfully switching the subject.

“The receiver?” Yuri adds.

“Yeah, that.” Monika says, looking the rifle I now know is called a ‘Garand’ over. “So… Why’s this the best thing in your collection? The historic value?”  
Yuri almost jumps out of her skin when Monika puts the rifle to her shoulder and points it in the general direction of Sayori. 

“Please, don’t point that at anything you aren’t trying to shoot!” Yuri interjects, immediately wilting once she does. “Gun safety… it’s, well… It’s nothing to trifle with.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry.” Monika lowers the rifle and points it at the ground.

“That’s better.” Yuri says. “Now, to answer your question. The Garand may have been around for quite some time, but the cartridge it fires is just as potent as it was during the war. 

Monika nods, raising an eyebrow as if to say “Go on…”

Not only that, but it’s semi automatic, meaning you needn’t do anything to load your next shot once you fire. The rifle handles that for you.”

“Alright. This does sound pretty powerful...” Monika nods to herself, still looking the hefty old rifle over.

“You seem quite eager to attract the infected to yourself, and away from us, so it’s only fair that you’re given a weapon that will dispense with them quickly.” Yuri adds.

“Ahaha~ You certainly know your stuff, Yuri.” Monika says. “Could I assign you a little task?”

Yuri perks up and nods.

“If you could help everyone else find something to protect themselves with the way you did for me, I’d really appreciate that.” Monika says.

Yuri’s eyes practically sparkle with excitement at the idea. “A-Absolutely!” 

And with that, she walks off to do what’s asked of her.

“Wow… I never thought someone would be so excited to do a chore.” I remark.

“They will be, if it has to do with something they really like.” Monika says. “Think about it. Yuri’s always so ashamed of being herself and her hobbies. She felt the need to hide all this behind a wall in her room.”

I think I see what Monika’s getting at here.

“Knowing her, she probably thought we’d start making fun of her for liking these things so much. But when someone not only doesn’t judge you for your hobby, but asks you to apply that knowledge…”

Okay. _This_ is why Monika is club president! “Yeah! If someone asked me to recommend an anime or game to them based on what they like, I’d be pretty excited too.”

“All part of being club president, MC.” Monika says. “A team member that feels appreciated is a team member that’s really going to put in the effort for their part.”

“Must be pretty hard to handle on your own…” I say. I never really did consider how much Monika does for us.

“It _was_ pretty manageable, but now... well....” Monika sighs. “I never signed up to be responsible for people’s lives. That’s just too much for one person’s shoulders.”

It finally hits me just how much pressure Monika’s been put under today. Going from the president of a humble little high school club to the leader of 5 frightened teenagers. Surrounded by shambling, murderous berzerkers. And with no end to that burden in sight.

It’s just not right. Monika’s doing so much for us, it’s only right I do something for her.

“Then we’ll put it on two people’s shoulders.” I say. “Just say the word, Monika, and I’ll do anything you need me to.”

“That means more than I can say, MC.” Monika says, already I can see the stress leaving her body. For now, at least.

“Don’t worry. We’ll keep this little fellowship together somehow.” I say, quickly realizing that I never picked a weapon of my own. I should probably take care of that.

I rejoin the group, and take a look at how everyone’s loadout is coming along. 

Wow. Yuri’s really been working her magic!

Natsuki’s holding a rather potent looking revolver and some kind of crossbreed of a shovel and an axe. On the blade, the letters “LOBO” have been etched. Whatever that means.

Sayori is looking down at a compact shotgun; the kind with the two barrels next to each other. The look on Sayori’s face reminds me of an expression she would make when we went trick-or-treating as kids. She’d always have that exact look on her face if she wasn’t happy with the candy the last house gave her.

Yuri’s got a katana sheathed on a belt around her waist, and now it looks like she’s arguing with herself over which of her guns she wants to take with her on the road. They all look pretty much the same to me.

She looks pretty focused, but she was also really thrilled to help people, so I grab her attention.

“Yes, MC?” Yuri says, putting a pair of handguns down.

“I’m still pretty lost on which weapon I should pick.” I say. “Any suggestions?”

After a bit of discussion, we conclude that I ought to use something that compliments Monika’s Garand. Yuri tells me that the Garand is a precision instrument where you have to carefully aim. Therefore the best companion would be a weapon that can do a little crowd control when Monika doesn’t have time to aim her shots.

To that end, she hands me a shotgun that looks even older than the Garand. She calls it a Winchester 1890… Eighteen Ninety Something. She also shows me how to attach a special knife to the business end and how to make it do a thing called “Slam firing”. I don’t retain the specific technical reasons for it, but if I hold down the trigger and pump the gun, it will fire again the second I finish pumping.

Now that’s what I call crowd control!

Yuri aquaints me with the basics of how to work this thing with the aid of a couple of dummy shells. As I set to practicing, I ask one last question.

“Doesn’t Sayori already have a shotgun?”

“Yes, but she only agreed to carry it after I taught her about specialist shotshells. Ones she could use for things other than fighting.” Yuri says. “Even now, she refuses to harm anyone...”

I’d say she was sticking to her ideals about not hurting people, but with how forlorn she’s been looking ever since we got here…

Should I bring that to Monika’s attention? I mull that over and vow to keep an eye on her as I continue to practice with my new weapon.

By the time Monika grabs everyone’s attention, I’ve just about got this whole trench broom thing on lock.

“Okay everyone! It’s time to…” Monika’s usual confidence wavers in the face of what’s going on outside of these walls. “Time to figure out our next move...”

“Why don’t we just stay here?” I ask, my eyes scanning over the remaining weaponry. “We’ve got everything we need here, don’t we?”

“It’s well stocked, yeah, but it’s also in the middle of a city full of zombies.” Monika says.

“That also makes it a prime target for looters.” Natsuki adds.

“MC was just trying to help.” Sayori protests. I think she might be more upset about their counterpoints than I am.

“Nah, it’s alright Sayori. Somewhere this populated might just get bombed by the army.” I say with a shrug. “In hindsight it was obviously a shit idea.”

“It was logical enough, MC.” Yuri says with a sigh. “Though I’m struggling to think of anywhere better to be. Where is there that we can be well sheltered, well armed _and_ a comfortable distance from the rest of society?”

Both Sayori and Yuri called me “MC” in the midst of a dead serious conversation about how to survive. So y’know what? Fuck it. If they’re _this_ committed to the “MC” joke, I guess I’ll just roll with it.

There’s a look on Sayori’s face. Her dejection immediately erased by the eureka moment I can see on her face.

“I have an uncle.” Sayori starts, before visibly struggling with how to continue that thought.

“That’s nice. Totally irrelevant, but nice.” Natsuki says, earning her a few daggers glared in her direction.

“No! He… He’s been preparing for something like this for years! Lives in the woods in a…” Sayori trails off again. “In a… What did he call it?”

“A compound! He built a whole compound in case this exact thing happened!” Sayori finishes her thought.

“Running water, electricity, everything?” Monika asks, met with Sayori’s enthusiastic nodding.

“He’s even got wifi!~” Sayori says with a grin.

“Well then! That sounds perfect!” Natsuki says. Even she’s smiling now. “And uh… sorry for being all impatient with you, I guess…”

“Any objections?” Monika asks. “No? Then it’s settled. Tomorrow we start heading for wherever Sayori’s uncle lives. Where is that anyway?”

“In the woods, off of this one highway by a stream…” Sayori closes her eyes and circles her fingers on her temples to remember every detail. “Right by mount… Mt. Amagoi!”

Monika nods as she takes the info in. “That’s about 30 miles from here...”

“We don’t have to do it all in one trip.” I say. “As long as we can find safe places to spend the night, we can go at our own pace.”

“True… But for now, we rest up.” Monika points to a window back in the normal part of Yuri’s bedroom. We all see that the sun set a long time ago.

With that, we all begin to settle in for the night. Monika meditates and prepares every bit of research she can think of. Routes to Mt. Amagoi, online survival manuals, you name it. A leader is going to need all the info they can get. Maybe I should start doing some learning too? Just so she doesn’t have to pull an all nighter. Natsuki sets to making dinner from whatever she can muster in the kitchen. Yuri preps the teapot and sets that aromatherapy device up again. Sayori’s first instinct is to gather everything she can think of for tending to wounds.

As everyone prepares for the coming storm, one thought dominates my mind.

This is going to be our last night of something resembling normalcy, isn’t it? Our last night with a sturdy roof over our heads, a kitchen full of food, a shower with warm running water. Even our confidence that we’ll live to see tomorrow is soon to be in question.

But I take a look over our little survivor band again. The way everyone finds what they’re good at and does it with all their heart; the way it all seems to synergize. If we can just keep it together, I think we can take whatever the world throws our way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit longer than the first chapter, huh? That's why this took so long to release.
> 
> I'm also excited to announce that a DDLC mod version of this story is now in development! Be on the lookout for Doki Doki Outbreak, which we plan to release in an episodic format for the sake of the project not taking a decade to finish.


	3. Departure

I spend the night lying on some bunched up towels on the living room carpet. But after all the insanity that happened yesterday, it feels like I’m sleeping on the finest mattress this side of Honolulu.

I awaken to the sound of a news broadcast on the living room TV. Right at sunrise. Once I’ve blinked the sleep from my eyes and remembered where I was, I finally begin to hear what the news caster is saying.

“The death toll has now reached an estimated 70,000 and will only increase as the days go by.”

I watch Monika run a hand down the side of her head in disbelief at the death toll. The number makes my heart sink like a rock, but I force myself to keep listening for any useful information.

“Congress has convened an emergency session to vote on a quarantine of the Japanese archipelago prefectures; voting near unanimously in favor.”

“So they’re just _abandoning_ us!” Natsuki exclaims in a whisper. Monika raises her finger for silence, much to Natsuki’s chagrin.

“As we speak, the UP Navy Sixth Fleet is en route to drop supplies to the home islands by air. Including food, clothing and-”

“See? No abandonment.” Monika’s remark makes me miss the end of that sentence.

“Until then, citizens are advised to stay in their homes, conserve all available food and water, and not to open their doors for anyone but government officials.”

Welp, looks like we’re already breaking that rule.

“Research into the cause of the infection is ongoing, but a link has been confirmed with the bile of infected individuals.”

The three of us look at each other; all of us thinking of that poor girl in the stairwell. None of us have to say a word to convey what hindsight has put in our minds. I take comfort in knowing that the bite from yesterday is nothing to worry about, though.

The arrival of Yuri and Sayori from down the stairs spares us from contemplating her fate too deeply. Thank god.

“Hey, what’s on the news?” Sayori asks, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Any information that will aid our survival?” Yuri adds. 

Monika sighs. “Lots of people are dead. Japan’s been quarantined. They’ll be air dropping supplies, and don’t get puked on.”

That last remark puts a “well, duh” look on Sayori and Yuri’s faces.

“What she means is… is… you’ll, like,  _ die _ if you get puked on... By a zombie, that is.” I say. Good lord. That was the verbal version of trying to do a synchronized dance that nobody ever taught you. On stage.

“Monika? Is MC okay?” Sayori asks.

“No, what he just said is true. As crazy as it sounds.” Monika says, clearly wishing that that was just crazy talk.

“As crazy as _he_ sounds…” Natsuki adds.

“Was that really necessary, Natsuki?” Monika asks.

Natsuki rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Gotta stick up for your  _ favorite _ .”

“He’s not-” Monika just sighs and cuts to the chase. “The important thing is that it’s time to get moving. If you’ve got any final preparations, now’s the time.”

That seems to remind Yuri of something, since she immediately rushes back to her room for some reason. Yuri’s already furnished all of us with ammo, straps and holsters for our respective weapons, so that’s taken care of. We all forgot our backpacks at school, so we’ve all figured out our own ways of carrying our stuff. We have enough food and water between us to last about three days.

Hell. We even know what our first stop is. Yuri mentioned a konbini a few blocks away that will make a good place to rest.

So what did Yuri forget?

Yuri answers that question by coming back downstairs and handing Monika a leather jacket.

“Since you’ve taken charge, I suppose it’s only fair that I give you something that can fend off claws and bites.” Yuri explained.

Monika looks quite pleased with this new piece of protection as she looks it over.

That is, until she sees a 2 foot wide “Female Body Inspector” patch embroidered onto the back.

I’d describe the look Monika’s giving Yuri right now, but every time I try, I laugh too hard to get the words out.

“W-Well! That’s… It’s…”

“I stole it from Shiro!” Yuri finally blurts out.

Much to Yuri’s relief; that explanation seems to satisfy Monika, and she swaps her school blazer out for the leather jacket. She even lets out an “Ooh!” while she discovers more and more pockets on her new coat.

“You guys ready? ‘Cause I’m as ready as can be now!” Monika says. She certainly forgave Shiro’s crass tastes in a heartbeat.

“Lock and load!” Natsuki shouts, pulling back the hammer on her revolver.

“I’ve been waiting for this for years.” Yuri says, loosing her katana with the speed and grace of a samurai.

“We’ll be okay… We’ll be okay…” Sayori repeats to herself.

“Well, we have each other, right? That’s all I really need.” I say. I can tell by everyone’s faces that that came off as more corny than touching, but at least my bumbling raised spirits a little.

“Alright.” Monika says, loading a clip into that old rifle that Yuri gave her. “Konbini, here we come!”

I try and dramatically kick the door open, but quickly notice that it opens inward, so I just wind up standing there with my foot in the air.

“What? Waiting to squish a zombie leprechaun?” Natsuki says. I notice the other three watching me as I stand there; looking like I’m doing some sort of dumbassed crane pose.

“W-Well, I was _going_ to kick the door open, but…” I try to defend myself, but the more I think about it, the more I realize what a stupid idea that was to begin with. 

“So much for being a badass.” I think to myself.

With a defeated sigh, I just open the door like a normal human being.

So much for being a badass indeed...

I look out onto the street and see a dense, shambling _glut_ of infected choking the street in front of Yuri’s house. I don’t think I can see a single inch of pavement. Only her tiny front yard remains free of the crowd. Even then, a few zombies mindlessly wave their arms through the bars of her front gate.

“Father, Son and Amaterasu…” Monika says.

The rest of us just stare at the impenetrable mass before us in disbelief. Not only are we all wondering how exactly we’re supposed to navigate this, but I’m sure we’re all trying not to think about who anyone in this human clot was just 48 hours ago.

“I don’t think we can fight our way through that…” Sayori says. I can see the despair sinking into her expression already. I’d better make sure the conversation doesn’t end there.

“You sure you guys don’t want to just wait things out here?” I ask. Maybe that wasn’t such a terrible plan after all.

Yuri shakes her head “I’m afraid we can’t. Not for long, at least.”

Before I can ask why not, Yuri mimes an aircraft flying past, a bomb falling, and then the kaboom of it going off. Her sound effects even accounted for the doppler effect on the plane and the sound of the bomb not hitting the ears immediately.

Maybe a bit too much detail, but the point was made.

“Right…” I say, kicking myself when I remember that I was the one who suggested that possibility in the first place.

“So we can’t go, but we can’t stay here.” Natsuki says, resting her forehead in her palm. “Dammit!”

“Wait. Hold on, guys.” Monika says. “The streets are full of zombies, yeah. But that’s the _streets_.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Natsuki groans.

“No! Look again. Look into the yard across from us.” Monika insists, pointing for emphasis. “See any zombies there?

I follow Monika’s finger and look for myself. Lo and behold, anywhere that has a closed barrier between it and the street free of zombies!

“Good catch, Monika!” I say. If we can just stay away from the main roads, we’ll be fine!

“But we still have to cross the street, don’t we?” Sayori says, not looking _quite_ as gloomy as she did before.

“We don’t.” Yuri says.

Yuri beckons us to follow her with a gesture of her head. 

When we meet her in the backyard, we’re greeted by a sight much like other backyards in our city. It’s a long patch of lawn and greenery; surrounded on all sides by the houses and businesses of Yuri’s block. Each building forms part of the wall that secludes this island of green from the eyes and noise of the street. The whole of it is divided by fences of every type you can imagine.

And wouldn’t you know it? It was zombie free!

“Were it not for the.. well… ‘congestion’ of the street, we’d have simply taken a right at my front door until we reached Misuzu Street. But if we cut through here, we needn’t deal with them until we need to cross to Panaya Road.” Yuri explains.

“So we’re putting the fight off?” Natsuki asks.

“And abbreviating it.” Yuri says, already halfway over her backyard fence.

But when Yuri looks back at all of us, she seems to lose her confidence and gets back down. “That is… I’m sorry. I never confirmed if you were all in favor of this plan before I-”

“Yuri.” Monika cut in tersely. “It’s the best idea we have. You know the area better than us. It’s  _ fine. _ Now  _ move. _ ”

Yuri just looks at Monika like a kicked puppy before she goes back to hopping the fence. The rest of us are quick to follow. Monika makes it over without much of a struggle. Yuri nearly loses her footing on the wood planks before she makes it over. Natsuki needs a hand from Monika to reach the top, and Sayori and I both need someone to pull us over.

But hey! We’re all over the fence now. We’ve taken the first step of… a lot of steps to Uncle J’s place.

Monika usually doesn’t talk to people with the tone she just used with Yuri. What was that about?

“Hey. You alright, Monika?” I ask, matching her pace as we walk.

Monika lets out a sharp sigh. “Yes, Yuri. We agree that we should use literally the only clear path to the konbini. None of us were going to say ‘but I  _ wanted _ to get eaten alive!’ Do you really need to ask?”

“I mean, can you really blame her for wanting to make sure she didn’t wander off alone?” I ask.

“Yeah, I guess.” Monika says, still clearly annoyed. “At least Yuri isn’t making stupid pointless snipes at people.”

Monika pretends to cough to mask the word “Natsuki”.

“That was pretty uncalled for, yeah.” I say, putting one foot in the low chain-link fence that marks the border between the yard we’re in and the yard we’re headed towards.

“Like, excuse you for being a little awkward trying to give her info that’ll save her god damn life, right?” Monika says, hopping the fence in one motion.

It’s nice that she’s going to bat for me and all, but I can’t help but wonder. Is she going to start talking like this behind _my_ back?

“And don’t get me _started_ on that favorite remark.” Monika says, getting herself started on that favorite remark. “Yeah, you’re a cool, laid back guy who’s a little quirky and makes mistakes talking sometimes. I like talking to you, but does that mean I’m going to start giving you special treatment? No!”

At this point, I think Monika just wants to get this out of her system. So I nod my agreement and silently jump for joy that the most popular girl in school thinks so highly of me.

Monika pinches the bridge of her nose and puts a hand on my arm. “Ugh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be dumping all of my gripes on you like this.”

“Then where else are you going to dump them?” I ask. “If you just hold on to it all, it’s going to start seeping out in how you treat us; how you make decisions.”

“Decisions…” Monika says, dragging a hand down her face. “I volunteered to be responsible for a high school club with five people in it; not to be responsible for four lives on top of my own!”

“Nobody volunteered for any of this. At least, as far as I know.” I say. “God, can you imagine? What if this is all like, some big damn political conspiracy?”

Monika cracks a smile. “Ahaha, as _if_! Who would even want to engineer a zombie apocalypse?”

“You never know what you’ll find at the intersection of angry, crazy, and filthy rich.” I say, shrugging.

This next fence is going to be a real bastard to climb. Not only is it a picket fence with no footholds on this side, but it’s a _plastic_ picket fence with no footholds on this side. Can’t even count on friction.

“Oh, this is gonna suck.” I remark, looking this tacky barrier up and down.

Monika points at the huge maple tree towards the back of the next yard. A few of its branches hang over the picket fence and into the yard we’re stuck in. “C’mon, dude. Can’t you climb?”

“I haven’t climbed trees since I was like, eight.” I say.

“Are you trying to tell me you’ve become _less_ tough since you were eight?” Monika says, already searching for the right place to begin her climb.

I don’t know about weaker, but I’ve definitely gotten bigger. I can reach further along the branch, but I’m also heavier. So fewer branches will hold me and I’ll hit the ground harder.

Before attempting the climb myself, I watch how Monika does it. I might pick up a trick or two, and I don’t risk bringing the branch down under the weight of two young adults. Once I see Monika make it over safely, I follow in her footsteps.

Monika’s strategy was to find the thickest branch within her reach, wrap herself around it, and make her way towards the trunk until she was above the fence. There, she just used the branch to get herself seated atop the fence, and hopped off and into the next yard. She made it look real easy. I bet I could do that, leather jacket or no!

I do a pretty good job of copying what Monika did, if a bit slower and less gracefully. The branch holds my weight, and I _do_ catch myself the one time I almost fall. But once it comes to the final step of jumping the fence, I make the mistake of trying to jump right from the branch to the ground. That earns me a face full of dirt and knees full of hurt.

“Ow…” I groan, still face down in some stranger’s lawn.

“You’re fine, dude. Now get up.” Monika offers me a hand up.

Not only is it a nice gesture, but it means I get to hold hands with Monika for a few seconds. How could I say no? To my surprise, she even brushes the dirt off of me once I’m back on my feet.

“Hey uh, thanks Monika.” I say. She just smiles in return. “So, where’s everyone else?”

“...Good question.” Monika says, clearly having an ‘oh shit’ moment on the inside. “Guys! Shout if you’re alive!”

“We’re fine! Where are you?” Natsuki calls back, from the far end of the block.

“I’m with Natsuki!” Sayori adds. “We made the fences a little easier for you guys!”

Yeah, I _thought_ I’d heard a banging noise ahead of us was…

“A-Ah! Give me just a moment!” Yuri calls, a few backyards behind Monika and I.

“Everyone’s okay, at least.” I say.

“Then let’s not keep them waiting.” Monika says.

We regroup with the others in a fenced off alleyway. Thanks to Natsuki hacking away at the last few fences with her Lobo, the rest of us were spared having to climb over. I think I heard some gunfire too. Since each shot was followed by something to the effect of “Owie!” from Sayori, it becomes pretty clear that she was trying to help Natsuki make holes in fences.

“Okay, that’s everyone. Let’s get moving.” Monika says. But when she goes to open the door in front of her, Yuri stops her.

“If you don’t mind, we’ll… Let’s go a few doors down, to your right. We’ll need to close every inch between us and Panaya Road we can.” She says.

“It is pretty quiet right now, but you’re right. Who knows how long that will last?” Monika says. “Take the lead, Yuri.”

Something changes in Yuri. The same thing that changed when she insisted on reciting her poem next. Whatever prompted it, Yuri gets that serious, confident look in her eye as she leads us to a few doors to the right. She even draws her pistol and looks down the sights as she moves. Something about seeing that gets me thinking, and I instinctually aim  my shotgun at the area behind us. I’ve played enough online shooters to know that it’s a good idea to guard the sightlines that your teammates aren’t.

“Clear!” I hear Yuri call from behind me. Sounds like my cue to get indoors.

I’m the last of the five to enter, and I close the door behind us. When I turn around and get a look at my surroundings, I find myself in a commercial grade kitchen. All of the lights are working, except the three shattered ones. Pots, pans and condiments can be found just about everywhere but where they’re supposed to be. People really turned this deli upside down last night, huh? Still, Natsuki starts scouring the kitchen for any useful foodstuffs.

Through the shattered glass of the counter’s display window, we finally lay eyes on Misuzu Street. There’s a surprisingly small number of zombies out there, but I quickly remember that we can only see a small sliver of the whole road. I can’t quite make out what the building across the street is. My best guess is some kind of office building.

“Alright. So what’s the plan now?” I ask nobody in particular.

“It looks like we could run across.” Sayori says, a glint of hope in her eyes.

Monika shakes her head. “They’ll be on us the second they know we’re here. We’ll have to fight a few of them at least.”

Before anyone else can remark, Natsuki cuts in with a “Tadaa!~”

She holds up a half-empty bottle of ponzu sauce and a can of Spam. “The scavenger extraordinaire does it again! You’re welcome.~”

“ _Natsuki._ ” Monika snaps in a harsh whisper. “Pipe down, the zombies are _right there!_ ”

I can see Natsuki about to snap back, but the mention of nearby zombies makes her reconsider.

“Hmph.” Is all the response Natsuki gives.

“It’s okay. You didn’t know.” Sayori says. The consoling hand Sayori put on her arm seemed to be enough to get Natsuki to focus again. “Now, how do you think we should cross, Natsuki?”

”Can’t we just shoot those two guys in front of the door and go?” Natsuki asks, already pulling out her revolver.

“I guess that would work. Then we just shoot any of the others that show up.” I say.

“Sounds like a plan, then.” Monika says. “But who does the shooting?”

“Why don’t we all? Then we can be sure they go down, and we can all get a feel for our weapons.” Yuri suggests.

“Alright. We’ll take them out Napoleon style.” I say,  putting the shotgun’s sights over a zombie’s head.

“On a count of three...” Monika says, shouldering her own rifle.

_ 3... _

_ 2... _

_ 1... _

**[BOOM]**

**[EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…]**

The two zombies are blown away by the volley, but so are my eardrums. The kick from the  rifle  isn’t _quite_ as bad as I thought it’d be, though. Less of a sucker punch, more of a harsh shove.

But we’ve got bigger problems than earaches. Turns out, the zombies are attracted to loud noises. You know, like five firearms going off at once. Two zombies are down, fifteen are now approaching us. Some of them are runners.

“Shit,  _ shit!” _ Natsuki fires her revolver again. She shakes out her wrist and curses to herself immediately after.

Monika’s Garand drops two shamblers with a single shot, but she goes a little overboard and winds up emptying her entire clip at the runners. Now she has to deal with that tricky reload.

Sayori is seated with her back pressed against the deli counter; frozen solid with terror.

Looks like it’s down to me and Yuri.

I start firing wildly into the mass of shamblers. Then I hear the click of an empty chamber. A runner pounces at me from over the counter.

I keep hitting him with the buttstock, but he hits me harder with his fists. Right as his teeth get a grip on me, Yuri lops his head clean off. A single, graceful arc of her katana sends the runner’s head chomping ineffectually to the floor.

But all that just gave the shamblers time to close in. While Yuri fires her pistol into the approaching mass, I have just enough time to get a few more bullets in the trench broom. Just shy of a full tube, but it’s enough.

With a pump of the handle, I’m back in the fight.

Natsuki and Monika’s slow, punishing shots, paired with Yuri’s quick cherry-tapping pistol rounds only just holds the mob back. But the moment I remember that “slam firing” thing Yuri showed me, buckshot gets loosed at a blistering, devastating speed. Needless to say, I’ve shattered the stalemate. As well as quite a few zombie heads.

And just like that, the infected wave is now a small hill of bodies on the deli floor.

“Holy shit…” I say, finally lowering my  shotgun.

“We… We did it!” Natsuki shouts, raising her Lobo in triumph.

About halfway through our first round of high fives and fistbumps, we hear the throaty roars of another hundred infected bearing down on us. It sounds like it’s coming from both sides.

Monika and I stand and stare at each other, both of our hands still frozen in the air for a high five that never happens.

Before any of us can even say “Oh shit”, half a dozen runners come rushing into the cafe. Shit, I’m still empty from the last fight!

I guess everyone else is too, because the other three have their melee weapons out. That’s what shakes me into remembering. “The bayonet!”

A runner comes at me from around the counter. This time I’m ready, and I plant my foot on his chest to pin him in front of the cash register.

Of course, that does nothing to stop him from clawing the shit out of my leg. Every time I remember a step in the reloading process, the zombie damn near breaks my knee with his fist. Each blow hurts enough to make me lose focus. Once he pukes all over my ankle, the close brush with infection finally makes me realize something.

That foot-long bayonet doesn’t have to be attached to the gun to stab things, now does it?

I pull the bayonet out of its sheath with my off hand. The next time the zombie opens his mouth to scream at me, I drive the blade right between his teeth. He thrashes and starts beating the shit out of my arms instead of my leg, but I keep going. Keep driving it in until I hit something important and he stops moving.

The zombie goes limp under my bruised, bile-stained leg. I look up in time to see Yuri twirl the blood from the blade of her katana. I look to my left, I look to my right. I don’t see any more runners attacking us.

“That’s the last of them, then?” I ask.

The closing mass of shamblers answer my question for me. Not with words, but with the collective sound of their groans.

Monika hops over the counter and starts dashing across the street. Natsuki isn’t too far behind. I join them, but stop when I see that Yuri’s still got her feet planted. When she looks down to the floor, I realize what she’s looking at.

_ “Sayori!” _

I rush back behind the counter to find Sayori still frozen with terror. Our eyes meet, but she’s hyperventilating too hard to speak to me. Words aren’t going to do any good here. I just throw my arms around her and start running for the other side of the street. I know I’m leaving myself totally defenseless. But if that’s what I have to do to save the one person who knows me best, it will be done.

Thank god I’m not fighting alone. Monika and Natsuki fire shots at any zombie that looks like it’s getting too close. Even at their own peril. It’s not like the horde isn’t closing on them too.

Yuri takes up the rear. A stray runner comes at us in the direction we’d just come from, but Yuri’s bladesmanship makes short work of that one. A few broad arcs sever hands that get too close to Sayori and I.

I only realize that I’ve crossed the street alive when my shoulder brushes against Monika’s. Natsuki tries the hard oak front door, but it refuses to open.

“Sayori! The door!” Natsuki shouts. That was all she had time to say before another zombie closed into Lobo range.

Sayori’s eyes flash with realization at what Natsuki was asking of her, and she raises her shotgun at the door’s handle. The blast doesn’t go all the way through, but it makes a big enough dent that we can smash our way to the other side of the door handle.

Monika throws the door open with a “GO! GO! _GO!_ ”

We go, go, go alright. Even though we slammed the office door shut behind us, we know it isn’t going to hold. So we go, go, go. All the way to the second floor. Then we realize that will just trap us. So we just keep going until we’re on the roof of the building next door to the office.

Only then do we dare to try and catch our breath.

Monika braces her hands on her knees. Looks like she’s still got some fight in her. The rest of us? We practically collapse when we realize that the immediate danger has passed. Now that the rush of adrenaline is gone, I notice that my vision has gone fuzzy from the exertion, and how my heart is pounding incessantly in my ears.

“Any…” Sayori abandons that sentence when she finds that one word took all the air in her lungs. It takes her another five ragged huffs to try again. “Any-” [pant] “one-” [pant] “injured?” Sayori finally asks.

“Pants got puked on, but… “ The air is entering and leaving my lungs too quickly for me to say anything. So I just lean my head back on the air exhaust unit I’ve propped myself up against. Oh god… Ah fuck…

“You’ll be fine.” Monika says. I’m not sure if she’s finishing my sentence for me or reprimanding me for perceived weakness.  But I’m guessing it’s the former.

Between the bite and the puke, I have two guesses about what will happen to me. Either I’ll turn before sunrise tomorrow, or I’m god damn invincible. I really hope it’s the latter

We all just sit there; too weak to even stand. Through my dulled vision, I watch a shambler lazily wave her arms from the roof we jumped from. Eventually, she leans forward just an inch too far and plummets into the alley between us.

Thank god. If she’d made it over, Monika would have been on her own in fending her off.

By the time we’ve all recovered, I see that the sun has passed its apex in the sky. At the same time, I notice some pretty serious looking clouds blowing in from the east.

I begin to pull some food out of my improvised pack, but Monika stops me.

“We’ll eat when we get where we’re going” She insists. “Now let’s _go_. We’ve wasted enough time, you big babies.”

“Well excuse _us_ , miss track star!” I hear Natsuki say under her breath. Nonetheless, the rest of us pull ourselves to our feet to keep moving.

Monika and I are close enough for me to rib her a little, right? So I venture a “Right behind you, FBI.”

The look she shoots in my direction tells me that that was a bad idea.

Once Yuri gets us moving in the right direction, we continue crossing over the rooftops in silence. We only encounter a handful of easily disposed of infected up there, but the zombies aren’t what’s bothering me right now. It’s the silence.

Seriously. We just passed the intersection between Misuzu and Panaya, and none of us have said a word. Monika’s keeps her back to us as she leads the way, and I can see Natsuki trying to scowl a hole into the back of Monika’s skull. Yuri doesn’t watch Monika with _quite_ as much contempt, but I can tell she’s wondering what horrible things Monika is saying about her in her head.

Sayori attempts to start up a pleasant conversation a few times. She even tries to get us to sing, but the pointed silence quickly snuffs out these attempts to lighten the mood. This means I spend the next half an hour alone with my thoughts.

When I’m not navigating a gap between two buildings, I get a few moments to appreciate the view up here. I never did get to see my home city from the rooftops before. Then again, I’ve never seen it with half of the towers downtown burning either.

Speaking of fire, I can see smoke rising all over town from this vantage point. It makes me wish I could have come up here _before_ everything went to hell. If it weren’t for the reason  _ why _ we were up here, and the tense air around us right now, it would almost be romantic.

Maybe once this is all over with, I’ll bring  Monika  up here with me. Maybe on top of my house. Then we can just enjoy a sunset together. Maybe bring a bottle of wine up with us and enjoy one another’s company.

But that assumes we live long enough to get that close, let alone survive this all. I can only hope that this tension between us all doesn’t last. We worked together like a well-oiled machine to save Sayori, but I don’t know if we’ll pull that off again if we’re all so angry at one another. Or is Monika just angry at everyone else? Whatever the case, we need to sort it out, and sort it out soon.

Right as I finally get roof hopping down to a science, Yuri stops us.

“We’ve made it.” She says. “Now it’s simply a matter of getting down from here.”

Thankfully, there’s an openable skylight on the roof for us to enter through. At least _something_ was simple and straightforward today. What’s better, the skylight lets us land on top of a display with a flat top. None of us have to risk dropping a full story to get to the floor.

While I’m lowering myself down, I’m already dreaming of how hard we’re going to feast on the contents of this konbini. Gyudon cheesesteaks, sushi, hot dogs galore!

But then I see about 200 people had that same idea last night. The front windows have been shattered, and there’s barely anything left inside but shrapnel and sauce packets. The other four drop down one by one, and I see the disappointment grow in each one’s face as they see how thoroughly the place has been ransacked.

“Well, at least it’s still a safe place to sit down and eat.” Sayori says.

“Though… There’s far less to eat here than I was anticipating.” Yuri says. “I’m so sorry. It was so stupid of me to think there would be anything-”

Sayori pulls Yuri into a quick hug. “It’s okay. You were just trying to help. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have our own food!”

Sayori’s always had a contagious smile. Even Monika seems a little less angry after seeing that.

“Okay everyone.” Monika says. “Let’s throw together some lunch, plan our next move, and then we can get back to-”

A thunderclap shakes the floor of the konbini, and a heavy rain isn’t far behind. Monika flips through her phone, and then growls in frustration at what she sees. “Nevermind. We’re staying the night. Let’s get something between these windows and us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took a bit longer to publish than the others. I've got a handful of beta readers on board now, and I wanted them to look this all over before it got published.


	4. Family

It’s no honeymoon cabana, but after we barricade the shattered windows in the front of the konbini, it provides far more comfort than any of us would have expected.

It poured through the night, but once we had the skylight closed, the konbini kept us nice and dry. The power grid’s still holding, so we had access to a microwave and a space heater. The microwave was a real MVP. I don’t think I could have eaten that weird stew of ramen noodles, ponzu, ketchup and spam cold. But after three separate close brushes with death on Misuzu Street, I’m glad to eat anything warm and vaguely nourishing.

After eating a stew like that, I can see why Natsuki wanted to go and do some scavenging. But I also get why Monika practically grabbed her by the collar and told her no. It _was_ raining hard enough to float Noah’s Arc out there. And we don’t have any changes of clothing her size, let alone anything to keep the rain off.

Sayori checked everyone over for injuries. That is, after wolfing down two helpings of weirdo stew. I wasn’t until I poked her forehead and pointed to the stain on my pants leg that she remembered what needed to be done.

Once Yuri had all of her wounds looked over, the very first thing she did was pull that atomizer out of her kit and start filling the konbini with the scent of chamomile. I didn’t even realize how tense and afraid she looked until the chamomile started to relax her.

With her cuts cleaned, her belly filled and somewhere to relax, even Monika started to come down from her sour mood. Before we knew it we were all chatting away, and even complimenting each other on the teamwork we managed back at Misuzu Street.

Once we’d talked away what little energy we had left, we made beds for ourselves out of the contents of the store’s magazine rack and went to sleep. Maybe we should have set shifts to keep watch, but hey. Hindsight is 20/20.

 _Man_ I wish this morning was as pleasant as last night.

I sit up from my bed of Home-Improvement Illustrated and almost scream from the cramping pain that shoots up my leg.

“Hooooly shit!” I groan, marveling at how that exclamation started life as a yawn.

“What’s wr-” Yuri starts. Given the way she winced and braced her back, I’m guessing she’s figured out what’s wrong first hand.

Looks like everybody is waking up in pain. Natsuki is struggling to even sit up.

Sayori grimaces, walks her own pain off and kneels at Natsuki’s side.

“What hurts?” Sayori asks, offering a hand for Natsuki to pull herself up by.

Natsuki’s response comes out hoarse and breathy. “God… _everything_.”

Monika looks up from her phone as she hears this exchange. “Is it really that bad?”

“ _Yes. It is._ ” Natsuki snaps back.

With a lingering, hurt look. Monika just looks back at her phone. I see her lips move, but I don’t catch what she said.

“So, uh… In other news...” Monika begins. “They figured out that the virus spreads from contact between zombie puke and open wounds, and despite a rash of infections in Los Angeles, the army air drops are due to start tomorrow.”

The news seems to lift everyone’s spirits. Even the information about how the virus spreads. At least now we know exactly what to avoid.

“Hold on a second. How did you find that out?” I ask.

“You guys didn’t figure it out? Power’s still on, and so is the konbini’s wifi router.” Monika says.

We’ve had wifi the whole night!? Everyone who has their phone on them immediately pulls it out. Myself included.

“If the wifi still works…” Yuri says, even more hope shining in her eyes than before. ”Then the cell phone towers are likely to still be functioning as well.”

We all seem to have the same thought at once. That thought being “I have to call my parents.”

I pull out my own phone, only to be greeted with a blank screen and a dead battery. Damn it all!

I only hear one half of Monika’s conversation.

“Dad! It’s Monika!”

…

“Yes, I’m okay! I’m with the Literature Club.”

…

“My vice president has a relative we can stay with. One of those survivalist types. You know, like Ronnie?”

...

“Yeah, coming back to Colorado Prefecture would have been preferable, but even without the quarantine… they’re looking to me for answers now.”

…

“I think they do, but…”

Monika turns away from us and lowers her voice. Though I can still make out what she’s saying.

“It’s so hard. I’ve never had _lives_ in my care before.”

…

“I think I might be pushing them too hard, but every time I think of calling a break, I just picture _them_ overrunning us and…”

It sounds like Monika’s dad cut her thought short. Monika nods a few times, and I see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. I think I see a smile as well.

“That’s true…”

…

“You always said I took after gramps, and he _did_ get his guys out of the Ardennes…”

There’s some more tearful nodding on Monika’s end.

“That means so much… Thank you, dad. I’ll do you proud! Tell mom I love her, okay?”

Sayori and Yuri end their conversations not long after Monika.

“Hey, Natsuki. Aren’t you going to call anybody?” Sayori asks, watching Natsuki tap away at her phone.

Natsuki rolls her eyes. “Not my dad. That’s for sure. The drunk old prick can _rot_.”

The rest of us exchange looks. Monika gives us a solemn, knowing nod.

“So… with that out of the way...” Monika glances one more time at Natsuki. It’s almost looks like she’s trying to make sure Natsuki’s okay. “I think I figured out where to go next.”

Monika beckons for us all to gather around her phone. On the screen is a road map of the area between us and Mt. Amagoi.

“We’re here, and there’s a metro line just a block away from us.” Monika says, gesturing along the line with a finger. “Once we get there, that’s an elevated, unobstructed path west that’ll get us halfway there. I think we could make it in a day if we push ourselves.”

Push ourselves, huh? I try and make my groan as quiet as possible. I can tell Yuri and Sayori aren’t thrilled by the idea either. But Natsuki? Natsuki’s more than ready to voice her thoughts.

“Oh, _suuuure_.” Natsuki says. “Just let me draw from my bottomless reserves of stamina. Exhaustion? Muscle tears? What on earth are those?”

Monika gives everyone an incredulous look. “Am I really the only one who was taking care of themselves before all this? Just because we’re a little sore doesn’t make us need to move any less.”

Right as Natuski is about to say something back, Monika makes for the front door and holds it open for us. “C’mon, you wimps! We’re burning daylight!”

Not even the “favorite” is exempt from her ire, huh?

I look back at the other three, to see if they’re feeling the same way I am.

Sayori tires to give me a smile, Yuri just sighs and gets to her feet, but Natsuki’s glaring a hole through the back of Monika’s skull.

Once everyone’s got their gear back together, we head out the front door. We’re greeted by the morning sun, empty streets, and a cluster of about twenty soaked, thoroughly rained on zombies. I think I see a rail bridge behind them, but they’re completely blocking the way to it. At least they haven’t noticed us yet.

“Yeah, we’re not sneaking past that, are we?” I remark, keeping my voice low.

“It shouldn’t be a difficult fight, however. Not compared to yesterday.” Yuri says.

“Just don’t shoot all at once this time, please.” Sayori adds, one hand already poised to plug her ears.

“Let’s just get this over with quick.” Natsuki says. “This gun hurts my wrist almost as much as it hurts their faces.”

I raise my Shotgun at the cluster, keeping the bead on the nearest zombie’s head. “Ready when you are.”

“What, were you waiting for an order or something?” Monika says. “Ugh. Just shoot em’.”

I shoot first, and the buckshot lands right where I aimed it. The others follow suit in their own time, but what surprises me is the booming report from Sayori’s shotgun. Wait. Did she aim at the lamp post?

The second shot confirms it. As the Lamp post leans precariously to the left, I get an idea of what she was trying to do. There were more runners in that cluster than I was hoping there would be. There’s no way we’ll be able to drop them all before they get too close.

Monika, Natsuki and I manage to take another five of the runners out before they’re in melee range. And of course, Yuri’s katana comes out with the deadly grace we’ve come to expect.

She’s good, but she’s not seven-versus-one good. But we can’t exactly shoot into the cluster either. We can’t afford a gunshot wound right now. Especially not on our best fighter.

Monika keeps frantically glancing at Yuri, but can’t take her eyes off of the encroaching horde of shamblers. She’s only got so many shots per clip in that Garand, too.

I gesture for Monika to go help Yuri. I’ve got this.

Once Monika leaves my peripheral vision, I stare down the slow, shambling doom that’s closing in. A shot off Natsuki’s revolver tears a hole clean through one of their heads. At least I’m not fighting alone.

With that round of heavy-caliber reassurance, I pull the trigger on my own gun. One shambler collapses. A few others stumble as the extra pellets hit them. I rack the slide and fire again. And again. The first five shots almost feel like a shooting gallery.

By the time I finish loading six fresh shells, the shamblers are noticeably closer. They aren’t on top of us yet, but it’s enough to get me sweating. The pellets aren’t spreading as much now. They’re too close. But now each shot produces a splatter. I think I got the shambler behind that one too. At least, I hope so.

Another six shots, another empty tube.

By the time I rack the shotgun closed, I can feel the shamblers’ outsretched hands brushing my arms. I step back a few paces. My back hits the barricade we put on the konbini windows.

I’m either going to give myself plenty of breathing room with these next six shots, or they’ll be the last six I ever fire. If there was ever a time to slam fire, this would be it.

Going from right to left, I let off each shot as fast as my off hand can rack the slide. The recoil brutalizes my shoulder almost as badly as the buckshot brutalizes the shamblers’ heads and necks.

When the trigger goes click, I see that I’ve bought myself maybe five seconds more than I had before I slam fired. Though with Natsuki to my right, picking a few off, I might be able to finish off the cluster with one more full tube.

My hands are shaking too much. I’m loading at about half the speed I was managing before. I can feel them all crowding me. This is the end. I can feel it.

I’m sorry, Monika. I fought with everything I had.

**_[BOOM]_ **

The power lines above us blow a fuse. Every shambler that was on me turns their gaze to the source of the noise. Sayori lowers her shotgun.

By the time the shamblers remember I’m there, I’ve got the tube filled to capacity. Six shots, seven shamblers. Let’s do this!

I’m close enough to cram the muzzle right into the first shambler’s mouth. It’s every bit as messy as you’d expect. I repeat for the next five, then drive the buttstock into the seventh’s face with all of my remaining might.

She stumbles back just far enough that Monika can safely put a round through her head without hitting me. With a final _[PING]_ of Monika’s garand, the cluster of soggy zombies is no more.

A few other zombies are approaching the commotion, but the runners are easy enough to pick off, and the shamblers won’t arrive until lunchtime.

But god DAMN am I feeling every single blow. Even the ones from yesterday. Not even I know how I haven’t already passed out.

I can’t even cheer or talk about how we totally whooped their asses right now. All I can do is sigh. The kind of exasperated sigh you let out when you find out that you actually get off work three hours later than you expected. None of us even bother to say. “Let’s keep moving.” We just do. Everyone wants to get out of the streets as quickly as possible.

Too bad “As quickly as possible” still feels like an eternal slog. All we can do is put one weary foot in front of the other. The sun beats down on the waterlogged, puddle-ridden streets and onto our miserable faces.

One foot in front of the other...

Our sweat can’t even do its job, thanks to the humidity…

One foot in front of the other…

The streets are really starting to smell. The spilled contents of neglected garbage cans are marinating in rainwater; being slow baked by the sun. Not to mention the motionless body in that alleyway. I think that one’s been there a while.

One foot in front of the other...

 It feels like I’m breathing in swamp ass and breathing out chunks of my very soul.

One foot in front of the other…

When we reach the rail bridge, we quickly realize that there’s no way to access the tracks from here. The nearest station is _another_ block away. You know the drill...

One foot in front of the other…

One foot in front of the other…

One foot in front of the other…

Natsuki collapses onto the bench of a bus stop. Sayori is kind enough to give her some water from the Calpico bottle she’d been carrying her water in. Leaning her head back, Natsuki just lets the lukewarm sink water fall into her mouth.

Once she’s recovered, we get moving again. Though, with our pace, “moving” almost sounds like too generous of a term for it.

One foot in front of the other…

With how far my back is hunching, it almost feels more appropriate to start crawling. I glance over to see how Monika is handling this. Naturally, she’s still soldiering on better than any of us, but even she’s hunched over and panting. And here I was starting to think she was an untouchable paragon of stamina. Guess she’s human after all.

She turns to me and flashes a tired smile.

“You can do it.” she says, sounding as tired as she did genuine. But when she turns her head back and repeats “You can do it…”, I begin to wonder if she’s talking to herself just as much as she’s talking to me.

One foot in front of the other…

One foot in front of the other…

“Hey… There it is!” Monika says. Just having the station in sight is enough for me to stand up a little straighter. We’re almost there! And they have benches in there! And shade! And vending machines!

Onefootinfrontoftheother onefootinfrontoftheother onefootinfrontoftheother!

My calf muscles feel like they’re going to explode, but I ignore them as I rush up the motionless escalator and into the station.

They have benches to crash on, and the vending machines are still intact, but the roof is all glass. You know how a car gets hot when sunlight goes through the windows into the cabin? Imagine that, but in a room the size of a small retail outlet.

Nevertheless, our cramping muscles need somewhere safe to give out on us. So we all collapse onto the bench nearest to us. I wind up leaning against Monika. Surprisingly enough, she doesn’t shove me off of her. Instead, she just puts an arm around me and pats my shoulder. I think she whispered something encouraging to me as well, but I couldn’t make it out over the pounding of my heartbeat.

I watch Natsuki pull herself to her feet a minute later and approach a vending machine. By some miracle, the vending machines in this station are completely intact, but the lights aren’t on.

“Anyone got any spare change?” Natsuki asks.

“Considering the lights are off, I’m _pretty sure_ they’re not working.” Monika flicks a dollar coin off her thumb towards Natsuki. “But fine. Whatever.”

Natsuki catches the coin with a speed and ease that I never would have expected. Then she tries to put it through the machine’s coin slot. Just as Monika predicted, it won’t go in. The vending machines are dead as a doornail.

Natsuki sends her Lobo right through the glass.

“WHAT THE F-” Monika jumps to her feet. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“Surviving.” Natsuki says, stuffing as many bags of snacks and candy bars into her pockets and pack as possible. “Do you really think I’m just going to let a big case of unclaimed food go unopened?”

“All of these machines were perfectly intact before you did that. I’m not going to let this club turn into a band of looters.” Monika says.

Natsuki rolls her eyes. “That kind of thinking is for people who _don’t_ have a bunch of slobbering dead people trying to kill them every five minutes. Do you want to eat or not?”

Monika tries to respond, but I can see that she's too annoyed and tired to form a sentence. So she just pinches the bridge of her nose. “Ugh, whatever. We all caught our breath? Let’s get miles behind us.”

The rest of us pull ourselves off the benches. I’m no longer certain if all the sweat in my hair is still my own, but I’m _way_ too tired to give a crap. We head through the doorways to the platforms, and soon figure out which set of tracks we need to follow.

“This is the one, guys!” Monika says, crouching down to hop off the platform. Right as she’s ready to jump, an eastbound train screams past the platform; 2 inches from Monika’s nose. Judging by the horn not being blown, the breakneck speed it was travelling at, and the lazy arms hanging out the windows, that was a train full of infected passengers. Probably the driver too.

I watch the train as it speeds off. A couple hundred feet past us, the train gets thrown into a siding and plows right through the stopblock at highway speeds. As each car in the train careens into the nearby suburbia like 20-ton buckshot pellets, I can’t decide if the sight or the sound is the greater spectacle.

The five of us stare at the literal trainwreck unfolding before us. When the dust settles, and the last metro car slams into the last storefront, Sayori turns her attention to Monika.

“Are you okay?” Is all she asks.

“Well, if I wasn’t alert before I sure as shit am now.” Monika replies. “Okay everyone... Don’t walk directly on the tracks if you can help it.”

The walk down the railroad tracks isn’t much different from the walk to the station, but at least now there’s a sense that we’re starting to cover some ground. Doesn’t stink anywhere near as much either. The elevated tracks put us about two stories above the ground. So we’re getting a view about on par with the rooftop hopping we did last night, but without having to watch our step so much. To the west, I can make out a ridge of mountains on the horizon. Is that where we’re headed? Then I remember that we’re covering that distance on foot...

I’d best distract myself.

If I can keep pace with Monika, that means I can talk to her some more, right? That’s its own reason to push myself.

“Hey, uh… Monika.” I say, panting as I power walk up to her side.

“Hm? What’s up?” Monika asks, actually slowing down a little for me. And here I thought she’d keep up the pace to make me stronger or something.

I take a moment to collect my thoughts. I’d rather this not come off as desperate. “In the station. When we were sitting together… Did you say something to me?”

“Oh yeah, that. Ahaha…” Yup. Monika definitely said something that I couldn’t hear over my ringing ears. “That was just me trying to give you some encouragement.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured.” I say.

“Y’know, what Natsuki said earlier got me thinking. Am I really being that hard on you guys?”

…

Well I mean she _did_ ask. But it still sucks to be the hearer of bad news.

“Yeah…” I nod. “You kind of are.”

Monika sighs. I must have told her exactly the one thing she didn’t want to hear.

I can salvage this. “Sorry, it’s just-”

“No, _I’m_ sorry. I really don’t need to be as harsh about getting you guys moving as I have been.” Monika says.

“Do you mind my asking _why_ you’ve been so harsh?” I say, still having to power walk a bit to keep pace with Monika.

“It’s just… Ugh.” Monika huffs. I think she needs a second to figure that out herself.

A moment later, she says “It’s frustrating, you know?”

I definitely overheard her saying this to her dad earlier, but I don’t want to let on that I did. So I’ll just let her continue.

“I want to get you guys somewhere safe. Get you there quickly. The less time we spend on the way, the less time _they_ have to catch us.” She says.

I nod in agreement. That does make a lot of sense, but aren’t there better ways to spur us on?

“So when I see you guys just sit on your laurels and let a little fatigue turn you into sitting ducks, it…” Monika searches for the right way to end that sentence. I think I might have it.

“It makes you feel vulnerable?” I ask.

“Not even. I’ve got stamina to spare.” Monika says. “It’s _you_ guys I’m scared for.”

“Oh…” I say, too busy processing that to say anything else.

Monika gets right next to my shoulder and leans into my ear as we walk. I move myself a bit to the right so she doesn’t have to walk right on the tracks. “There’s something I need to tell you, MC. And this stays between you and me, okay?”

I nod. “Cross my heart, on my honor.”

“Since this began, I’ve been having nightmares every night.” Monika says, her voice low and inches from my ear. “Every night, I see you guys being torn apart by zombies. One by one. Limb from limb.”

I say nothing. What _can_ you say to something like that?

But Monika isn’t done. “And every single time, they just ignore me. It’s like I’m not even there. I can’t even pull them off of you. No matter how hard I try...”

“Oh my god.” I say, wishing I had something more profound to respond with. “But... why do you have to keep this a secret?”

Monika sighs. “Because someone has to be the strong, unflappable leader. I start panicking, everyone starts panicking. Everyone starts panicking, everyone _dies_. I can’t bear that weight, MC. I’m not strong enough.”

“But you _are_ strong enough to make sure that never happens, Monika.” I say.

“Ahaha...” Monika seems about as taken aback by what I said as I am at how quickly I managed to say it.

“You really think so?” Monika asks. There’s a lot of things I was fairly certain I’d never see. A unicorn, the Loch Ness Monster, Santa Claus flying a MIG-29 air superiority fighter…

But most of all, I never thought I’d see Monika doubt herself.

“I mean… you’re sure as hell stronger than I am.” I say.

As we walk, Monika pulls me into a hug. “Thanks MC. I can always seem to count on you, can’t I?”

I almost freeze in place. Scratch that. Getting _hugged_ by Monika felt even less likely before today. I feel like I should say something, but-

“HEY! MONIKA!” Natsuki screams, about 100 feet behind us. “If you’re gonna ABANDON us for your boytoy, you could AT LEAST tell us so!”

We stop and give the other three time to catch up.

“I would have stopped for you _without_ the unnecessary accusations, you know.” Monika says.

“Oh, you are the _last_ person to be tone policing us, Monika.” Natsuki snaps back. “You’ve been talking to us like we’re a bunch of disobedient fucking _children_ since we left Yuri’s house!”

Monika opens her mouth to respond, but Natsuki isn’t finished. She continues in a mocking falsetto. “Myeeeeeh! Let’s _gooooo_ you big stupid whiny babies! But don’t even _think_ about stopping to feed yourselves. You’d better just leave that whole fucking box of food untouched and starve because opening it would hurt my _feeeeeeeliiiiiiiiiiiings!_ ”

Maybe I can defuse this. “Hey, Monika’s been kinda harsh, but she isn’t _trying_ to-”

“Oh, of course! Of _fucking course_ her little pet is gonna leap to her defense!” Natsuki shouts, rolling her eyes.

“Well excuse me for standing up for a friend!” I shout back.

“Both of you, stop it!” Monika orders. “Every second we spend bickering is another second we aren’t-”

“That’s all you fucking care about, isn’t it!?” Natsuki says. “The only thing that matters to you is your precious little _death march._ ”

“Well if you’d prefer to sit here and wait for the zombies to get you, be my guest.” Monika says. “I’m sure we’d all like a break from your bitching!”

“Stop it! STOP IT!” Sayori shouts, on the verge of tears. “We’re supposed to be friends!”

“Friends don’t order friends to _FUCKING STARVE!”_ Natsuki’s words echo as she stares us all down, trembling with unbridled rage.

The volume, the _fury_ behind that last remark is enough to silence everyone else. After a palpable pause, Monika just turns her back and keeps on walking. As if to silently tell us all to move on from this fight.

My legs can walk away from what just happened, but my mind can’t. The entire, vindictive exchange keeps replaying in my head. Each time, my mind’s ear adds just one extra teaspoon of venom to each word. Especially that little snipe Natsuki made about me being Monika’s lapdog.

Speaking of Monika, how’s she taking this all? As nasty as that argument was for everyone, she was right at the heart of it.

Monika isn’t walking quite as fast as she was before, so I don’t really have to push myself to reach her side. I can see Monika is just staring as hard as she can down the railroad tracks; as if she’s trying to ignore everything else.

Judging by that single tear streaming down her cheek, I think I can tell why.

As desperately as I want to wipe that tear away and let Monika know I’m here for her, I don’t want to risk reigniting the argument if Natsuki happens to see what I’m doing.

And so we walk on in tense silence. It’s almost like a verbal mexican standoff. I’m not even sure how much time passed before another train station came into view. We’re all eager for something to break the monotony, so when Monika points to the station, we all follow her in without a second thought. It’ll be nice to be in the shade for a while, if nothing else.

I think my body’s getting used to the constant footslogging, because by the time we reach the station, I don’t feel the need to pass out on the nearest bench anymore. I’m even feeling well enough to poke around the place.

There’s not much to report, in all honesty. It’s an empty train station. I toyed with the idea of trying to get coins out of the ticket machine, but what the hell am I going to do with those? Does anyone still accept legal tender?

Why not take a look around the cafe? I find that they’ve still got a few curry donuts behind the counter. Score! I eat one, then another. Then my conscience finally manages to overpower my appetite. The others would like a little pick-me-up too, right?

I wave everyone over to the cafe. Monika, Sayori and Yuri come over to see what I’m so excited about. When I show them the four remaining curry donuts, their eyes immediately light up. There’s something nice about seeing everyone’s mood lightening as they scarf down this little culinary reprieve. Today has sucked some serious ass, so it’s nice to see everyone smile for once.

“So, who gets dibs on the last one?” Monika asks. The four of us look at each other to see who’ll lay the claim. Of course, Sayori is the first one to speak up.

“Shouldn’t we save it for Natsuki?” She asks. And here I thought she was just going to chow down. I should have figured she’d be thinking about someone else.

“Where is she anyway?” I add. None of us have kept an eye on her since we made it to this station.

Her shout from the men’s bathroom answers our question for us. “Holy shit, look who we have here!”

Smelling danger, the four of us bolt to the bathroom to back her up. We squeeze through the door to find Natsuki with her revolver trained on a shambler. He’s locked eyes with Natsuki, but he’s yet to make a move.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for a chance like this?” Natsuki says. Part of me wants to ask “Who the hell is that?”, but I don’t think Natsuki has noticed us yet.

“All those years, all those shouting matches, all those times you bitched at me for my hobbies, and all those nights going hungry because you were too busy moping to cook!” Natsuki continues. I’m still not sure what’s going on, but the context clues are mounting.

“Seriously. What kind of useless dad has the brass BALLS to criticize a daughter he can’t even consistently feed?”

Oh. _Oh._ I’d better keep my mouth shut.

“You always said I’d be dependant on you forever. Yeah? Well, guess what motherfucker! I’m surviving, and you’ve already died. Now all that’s left is to put you out of your misery!”

Natsuki puts a round through her father’s infected head. I watch as his blood hits the wall and his lifeless body hits the ground.

But I don’t see any satisfaction on Natsuki’s face. Reflected in the bathroom mirrors, I watch Natsuki’s face go from wondering where the vindication she thought she’d feel was, to horrific realisation at what she’d just done, to out and out tearful agony.

Her revolver clatters to the floor. Just a second later Natsuki falls to her knees. I can just about hear her choke out “Papa… I’m sorry, papa…”

All the resentment I was feeling from earlier is out the window now. Now I know why she was so upset about food. So upset about Monika’s harsh tone and orders. And for all I know, she’s just put down the only family she still had. She’d never mentioned her mother, or siblings, or any other blood relatives. How utterly alone must she be feeling right now?

I want nothing more than to comfort her somehow, but there’s no way she’d accept sympathy from “Monika’s little pet”. I suppose it’s a good thing Sayori’s stepping in, then.

Sayori joins Natsuki on the floor, pulling her into a hug from the side. Natsuki keeps on sobbing, but she leans into Sayori’s embrace.

Monika’s the next one to speak. “Oh my god… Natsuki, I’m so sorry. I didn’t-”

“Fuck off…” Natsuki chokes out.

Monika stops herself from trying to push the issue and sighs. “Alright, I’ll back off. You’re absolutely right to be angry with me, Natsuki.”

Natsuki turns her reddened eyes towards Monika; in disbelief at what she’d just heard.

“I knew your dad was strict, but I didn’t realize it was....” Monika continues.

“Y-You saw what just…” Natsuki tries to form a full thought.

“We all did.” Yuri answers.

“God dammit all…” Is Natsuki’s only response. Sayori just hugs her tighter.

I hesitate a moment, but find it in me to ask. “Was he the last family member you had?”

Natsuki nods. “I thought I was used to going it alone. Th’fuck did _I_ know about being alone before today?”

“I don’t know, but you’re still not alone.” Sayori whispers, right by Natsuki’s ear. “We’re all right here.”

That sets Natsuki’s tears off all over again.

Monika gets on one knee and offers Natsuki a hand up. “Come on. Let’s go lay him to rest.”

We pull a promotional banner down from this station’s atrium and lay Natsuki’s father atop it. Then the four of us grab a corner and carry his remains with us. All but Natsuki. She’s already carrying the weight of shooting him, after all. And someone needs their hands free to respond to any threats.

And so we continue however many miles it takes. None of us uttering even a single word of complaint or grunt of exertion until the railroad tracks return to ground level.

“Right there.” Natsuki points to a bush by the side of the railroad tracks. Once we’ve laid his body down, Natsuki pulls out her Lobo and begins to dig her father a grave. Right in the green between the rails and the fence that separates them from the road. Even then, she doesn’t dig alone. Monika and I occasionally soften the ground for her using our bayonets. Sayori takes over digging for her once in a while. Yuri stands guard over us all; quickly felling any infected that make an approach.

None of us care to track the time, but right as the sun begins to fall behind the mountains to our west, Monika holds up a hand.

“There. That should be about six feet.” She says.

With a silent nod, Natsuki sits by her father’s side.

“Hey there dad…” She begins. “Never thought it’d end like this, huh?”

She hesitates a moment before carrying on. “I’m… sorry for being such a difficult daughter. I always thought you were just a mopey old… y’know. But now? Now I realize just how much loss fuckin’ _hurts_ … Is this what you felt when we lost mom?”

I see the beginnings of tears in Monika’s eyes. I feel them trying to break through too.

“If this is how you were feeling, then… You really _were_ just doing the best you could with what you had, weren’t you?”

Sayori’s doing a good job holding herself together, all things considered.

“I wish I could do better for you, especially since this is the end and all. But… Shit.” Natsuki takes a moment to pull herself back together. At some point, Monika and I find ourselves joining hands.

Natsuki puts her forehead against what’s left of her father’s. “When this is all over, I’ll come back for you. Okay? See about getting you a real grave.”

With that, Natsuki puts a hand to the side of her head and works one of her ribbons out of her hair. Then she closes her father’s hand over it. “Here. You always liked these. So… you can remember me by it, okay?”

Sayori speaks up. “But Natsuki, now your hair is...”

“I’ve lost a lot today. At this point I don’t really care about losing symmetry too.” Natsuki replies, pulling her head back up.

For a while, Natsuki sits in silence; just trying to make the last look she would ever get at her father last as long as possible. None of us say a word until she speaks again to tell us that she’s ready.

At her signal, the four of us take the banner we’d carried her father on, wrap it over his body as best we can, and gently lower him into his impromptu grave. As we all pitch in to refill the grave, I find myself wondering how many other infected wound up getting this treatment. How many people wanted to do this for their dead, but couldn’t find a place? Or just didn’t have time? Or themselves turned before they could?

And just where the hell did this outbreak come from anyway? I heard absolutely nothing about it until that first day in class. How did it spread so quickly, so unnoticed? I’d just assume this was all a nightmare, but it’s lasted far too long. The pain has been far too real. And the exchanges I’ve had with the rest of the literature club have been far too vivid.

But as twisted as it might be to say, there are some parts of this that I really do hope are for real. Even if it’s for the sake of survival, I’ve never felt a sense of shared purpose as strong as I do now. Nor have I felt a bond quite as strong as what I think Monika and I are starting to have. That much, I truly hope is for real.

Once the dirt has been packed down, Monika addresses us all again. “Okay everyone. Let’s shelter at the next station. It’s as far as we’ll get before nightfall.”

Natsuki is the last of us to leave the grave site, and even as she walks away, she keeps glancing at where her father had been laid to rest.

Once we’ve all returned to our full pace, Monika hands Natsuki that curry donut we’d saved for her.

“Sorry I’ve been pushing you so hard.” She says.

“It’s the apocalypse and you’ve got to keep us moving.” Natsuki takes a bite out of the donut. “I get that.”

“Even then, that’s no reason to insult you guys like I have been.” Monika says, addressing all of us now. “If I keep thinking like that, it’s going to leak into my decisions. And _that_ could lead to… Well, something I’d never want to happen.”

“Leading is hard, Monika.” Sayori says. “Just acknowledging that you can do better tells me that you’re going to do a great job.”

“Ahaha… that really does mean a lot. Thank you, Sayori.” Monika says, looking out over the distant mountainscape. “We really are in this for the long haul, aren’t we? Let’s unload all our unspoken here. Lighten our packs for the road ahead.”

There are some quiet nods of agreement, but nobody volunteers to start.

“Alright...” Monika says, bracing herself for what’s to come. “I suppose it’s time I addressed this favoritism thing.”

Once she sees that everyone is listening, she throws an arm around me. “It’s no secret that I like this guy. I like him a lot!”

By now that was pretty clear to me, but it’s still incredibly nice to hear from her. It makes the idea that much easier to believe.

The other three keep listening, but Sayori and Yuri look a little confused. “But no matter how much I like MC, it doesn’t make any of you any less valuable. Though... I can see how the way I’ve been acting would give that impression.”

Monika releases me. “Every one of you is indispensable. Never forget that, okay?”

Her words seem to be affecting Natsuki the most. It looks like those words were like a warm shower and fresh change of clothes for her mind. “Thank you, Monika.”

“I won’t forget that, Monika. Just don’t forget that we need you too!” Sayori says.

“I do appreciate that reminder.” Yuri begins. “But I certainly wasn’t feeling neglected. Are you sure the issue was as big as it seemed?”

Sayori nods. “Yeah, I just figured you were super busy and stressed out. And MC was the only one brave enough to approach you.”

Now the only one who hasn’t spoken up about this is Natsuki. And by process of elimination…

“Yeah, I definitely thought I was seeing some special treatment going on.” Natsuki says, her voice still low and hollow. “What with the whole rubbing his shoulder, then running off with him thing…”

“Didn’t seem to bother anyone else. Is there something about it that irks you, Natsuki?” I ask.

It takes a little grumbling, but Natsuki lets it out. “It reminds me of what I never had. There, I said it.”

In one sentence, Natsuki made me completely understand what her issue with us was.

“I… Not even dad and I were ever close, and the times I tried opening up got me hurt.” Natsuki added, still devoid of emotion. Is she just out of emotional energy? I’d be in her position.

Sayori matches Natsuki’s stride and starts to gently rub her shoulder. “It’s okay. We won’t do that to you.”

“And how do I know that?” Natsuki asks, not visibly comforted by Sayori’s gesture.

“To put it in rather, well... cynical terms, harming you would be detrimental to our own survival. Would it not?” Yuri says.

“Shit… Guess that’ll have to do.” Natsuki says.

“Anyone else need to get something off their chest?” Monika asks.

“I’m fine...” Sayori says, sneaking a few glances at Monika and I.

“I ask only that everyone direct their anger at its actual source.” Yuri says.

“Right… Sorry again about that.” Monika says.

I respond with a noncommittal shrug.

“Then that’s everyone.” Monika says. “If any new ones pop up, talk it out as soon as you can. Because from here on out, we’re a _team_.”

Everyone seems pretty pleased with that idea. Even Natsuki manages to crack a faint smile, drained as she is.

And so the four of us walk on until we reach the next station. All the while, the rest of the literature club starts to talk like a group of friends again. Natsuki remains fairly quiet, but she’s holding her head just a little bit higher now.

I also keep quiet, since I keep on thinking about Monika’s declaration. A team, huh? We already saw little shades of that before now. When we rescued Sayori from her own paralysis, I felt it. There was this brief spark of unity. This sense that we were all parts of one well-oiled machine.

Now that I have a moment to contemplate it, I realize just how amazing that felt. After spending so much time on my own, I didn’t even realize that this feeling existed. Is this what keeps athletes playing their chosen sport?

I may have something truly special with Monika, but now I truly appreciate what the rest of us have between each other. Is there a word for it? “Friends” is one thing, but I have a feeling that it’s going to grow deeper than that. ”Squad” doesn’t really feel right either. None of us are shouting about echo deltas at four-niner-niner clicks northeast.

Or maybe, it doesn’t need a name. The important thing is that we’re going to make it through this. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took longer to finish than I'd like. The Natsuki version on it's own took a month because A. It had to be so significantly different from every other version, and B. because I didn't think to outline the changes I'd make before I tried to write them. But at the end of the day, I'm really happy with how it turned out.
> 
> On the plus side, the trailer for the mod version of this fanfic is now available for viewing on another team member, AstraNova's channel!
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO_4eThQyec


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